Women Say Suspect in Lyon Sisters' Murders Tried to Abduct Them

Prosecutors say the man accused of killing two young Maryland sisters who disappeared in the 1970s after visiting a D.C.-area mall had tried to abduct two other girls around the same time, near the same mall.

Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr., will go on trial in Bedford County, Virginia, in April for the first-degree murders of 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and her younger sister, 10-year-old Katherine. The girls were last seen walking home from the Wheaton Plaza mall in Montgomery County, Maryland, in spring 1975. They've never been found.

It was a cold case that haunted many in the D.C. area for decades.

Then, in 2014, there was a major break. Welch -- a convicted sex offender who'd been in a Delaware prison since 1997 on a rape conviction -- was named as a person of interest in the case. He was charged with the sisters' murders the following year, although their bodies have not been found.

Welch was noticed paying attention to the sisters the afternoon they vanished, investigators said.

Prosecutors said in a document posted online Thursday by WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Virginia, that if Welch is convicted, two women will testify at his sentencing that they got into Welch's car near the same mall, also in spring 1975. According to the document, the two sensed they were in danger and had to roll down the car windows to escape.

Prosecutors said others will testify about being sexually assaulted by Welch. They say they have 15 different victim accounts that allege rape, attempted abduction, and domestic violence against Welch, according to WSET-TV.

According to the documents, several of the incidents happened at or around the mall.

Welch's attorney didn't immediately respond to a message.

In January, a Virginia judge ruled that prosecutors may seek the death penalty against Welch.

SISTERS VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE

Sheila and Katherine Lyon left their home in Kensington, Maryland, on March 25, 1975, to walk about a half-mile to Wheaton Plaza, now known as Westfield Wheaton mall. They were on spring break, and they wanted to get pizza for lunch and see the Easter decorations. They had less than $4 with them.

A friend of the girls saw them outside the Orange Bowl restaurant with an older man who had a tape recorder and a briefcase, according to news and missing persons reports. A sketch of that man was later made and distributed, but the man was never located. 

The girls were later spotted on the road to home, but did not arrive by their 4 p.m. curfew. By 7 p.m. that night, police had been called.

Sheila and Katherine Lyon were never seen again.

The disappearance of the Lyon sisters dominated local D.C.-area news when it happened, and it became one the region's most famous cold cases. It inspired Baltimore mystery novelist Laura Lippman's 2007 book, "What the Dead Know" and was the subject of countless unsolved-crimes shows.

Many people who grew up in the suburbs of D.C. remember how profoundly the disappearance shook their view of the safety of their community.

"It was just stunning. It could have been anybody's kids," said Charleen Merkel, a shopper at Westfield Wheaton, after investigators announced a break in the case. Merkel said she remembered the disappearance well.

Another shopper, who did not give her name, shared, "It brings back a lot of memories of being scared growing up."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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